After their last project was stolen, about a month and a half ago, David Roytman and his collegues did not give up and set out to build the world's largest mezuzah. Last weekend their creation was inaugurated in an impressive ceremony in Jerusalem.
The piece is almost two meters tall and roughly 200 kilograms in weight. It was placed in one of the holiest locations in the world—on the rooftop of Yesh A'Torah Yeshiva, near the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.
The mezuzah is a complete pyrotechnical show. It includes a lighting show with dozens of flickering LED screens, and it can even sing "Jerusalem of Gold" (performed by Shuli Natan).
The original mezuzah was stolen from the factory shortly before its launch in September. Roytman filed a police complaint , but says half a year's work and tens of thousands of dollars were lost. Neverthelss, since the plans were already in place, he and his partners worked hard and created a new one.
"The klaf (a piece of parchment inscribed with specific Hebrew verses) will soon be inserted into the mezuza," promised Roytman, a native of Odessa who became religious in Soviet Ukraine. He immigrated to Israel without his parents when he was 11-year-old, as part of the Chernobyl Children's Project. In Israel, the desinger continued his studies in a yeshiva until his enlistment in the IDF.
Roytman soon became a famous designer of fine Judaica art. One of his products, for example, a line of expensive leather kippahs, costs thousands of dollars.
The designers behind the project promised to officially apply to the Guinness Book of Records..If the dimensions given by Roytman and his collegues are accurate, it might officially become the largest mezuzah in the world, since other mezuzahs competing for the title are only a 1.5 meters tall.
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